Chapter One

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview with Chapter1! Let’s begin.

As a recent college grad myself who has met many young entrepreneurs such as yourself, I often look back to my high school and college days where I think about how I didn’t even think doing a startup was an option. I was always told that I need to experience in the professional workforce for a few years and raise enough money to do so later in life. So, my question to you is: how did you get involved within the entrepreneurial community? How did you find out about it and know how to start/operate one yourself?

That's a great question because I got started on my entrepreneurial journey in an attempt to expose others to it.

My story began when I first published my book "Crossing Red Lights." As soon as I published my book everything changed. I started to meet some of the most incredible people in my community and through them, I got to meet other young youth who were quite literally changing the world. I attended the UN Youth Assembly a few years ago and I was immediately inspired by the people I got to meet who came from all over the world. I knew then, that I could do anything--ANYTHING--I aspired to. I realized then that professional experience or degrees were nothing compared to passion and dedication and I began my journey.

Distraught with how Muslims, in general, were depicted in the media, I wanted to create a platform that would provide a place where young people from diverse backgrounds that are often misrepresented could have a chance to share their true values and morals with the world directly.

I strongly believe in the idea that in order to create actual change, we have to be at the seat of the table that makes decisions. Seeing that the media companies that did reach to diverse audiences often didn't have a wide range of diversity on their board, I sought to create just that. With a special focus on the youth.

Crossing Red Lights is the latest novel added to my to-read queue (readers, you can find it here). While I have not read the entire book, I read the positive comments on Amazon and the description which I found very interesting. Where did you find the inspiration and the idea to write your novels? Would you say that the main character, Emma, is somewhat of a depiction of your own identity?

Thank you! Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Growing up, I began a ritual in my family where I would read my short stories and poems that I wrote for class out loud to my family during dinner. Soon my sisters followed and that ritual turned into a desire to create something bigger.

I wrote the first draft of the novel in 8th grade and spent a while editing it. I was inspired to create this story by Emma, the main character, and her siblings. I had a recurring dream for several years in which I saw a girl running away trying to protect her siblings and fighting against people who seemed like friends but were actually enemies.

Emma definitely has a lot of me in her because as a child writer I had very limited experiences to draw from and hilariously I rarely watched American shows so didn't really have those stories from draw from. I got a lot of inspiration for writing and connecting the dots by reading other novels.

Crossing Red Lights was my first novel and I am very proud of it, as I read it today I find so many flaws that I’ve hopefully grown out of over the year. Of course without that novel I wouldn't have had all the experiences I do today. I’m glad I was able to take that first risk that has lead to so many great things for me.

Without doubt, I have had the honor to meet some of the most incredible people out there one of which was a little girl who inspired so much of the things I am working on today.

A little Muslim girl in 5th grade came up to me at a school I was doing a book-signing and workshop at and asked me why, I, as a Muslim girl, hadn't made my character identify with my morals and values. And that hurt a lot and created a very transformative mindset within me because I realized that instead of solving the issue relating to the lack of diversity in media and entertainment, I was adding to it.

Now I am working on a novel with a Muslim female protagonist in America shown exactly like what a young Muslim American woman looks like.

Let’s talk about Rev 21 Media Inc. I’m always fascinated by the success of media companies. How did you get it started and scale to a bigger team to produce consistent content?

When I initially had the idea for REV 21, I wanted to publish a magazine however, after speaking to several people in the industry, I realized it would be a bad idea to invest in something that was dying with advancing technologies and resources. So I decided to create a full on media empire with a news site, production company, and an element to give back to the community via meet-ups.

Over the two years that I was still playing around with the idea of starting the company, I got to meet young students who I knew would be ideal team members on this journey so as soon as I made my decision to launch, I spoke to as many of them as possible to bring them on board.

REV 21 has been a rollercoaster ride, over the past year, of making mistakes, having new beginnings, and learning so much to move forward. I'm trying to take it one step at a time at the moment and trying to prioritize the different elements necessary to make the company succeed and I'm very grateful for the people who were willing to come on board and dedicate their time to this dream.

As an Editor-in-chief, what would you say your day-to-day responsibilities are? What does a typical day look like?

As editor-in-chief, my responsibilities include approving final articles, giving final edits to content and format as well as making sure the SEO and Readability of the content our writers have produces is as good as it can be to reach as many readers as possible. I often give feedback on pitches or help guide the writers in formulating an article that really gets the point across.

My responsibility also includes reaching out and finding more people to bring on board as writers as our current writers are students so it's hard to have consistent content on a full-time basis from them.

As an 18 year old CEO, even though you have experience and are super passionate within this industry and line of work, do you ever encounter scenarios where you are not taken seriously by older professionals? How do you overcome these challenges to have your voice heard? What other challenges do you often encounter?

Oh, absolutely! My competitors are professional people who have been doing this for years!

However, I am very lucky to have met older professionals who have not only respected me but also filled me with confidence and support to help me succeed which is always amazing because I get to learn so much and the times when I am filled with doubt or am afraid of how something might turn out, I remember them and their stories and keep going.

Of course, there are moments when I meet people who often see me as an idealist. And I get it. I am doing at a small scale with an idealistic view what they have been doing for years on a large scale in a very business-like manner--but that is exactly what I see wrong with the media and that is exactly what I am trying to fix while also having my fingers crossed in making sure I don't make a mistake to end up in a systematic business-like mindset that they have.

My job with my media company is to create unity and share hidden voices while also inspiring and helping my readers. For me, my audience comes first.

So whenever I do feel like I am not being taken seriously, I politely withdraw from that conversation. As an entrepreneur there is already A LOT of negativity around us both from external and internal conflicts. We don't need more of it.

It's better to find people who will listen than waste your time with people who are resistant to your passion and work just because of age or, in their eyes, inexperience.

However, sometimes it's also important push through. Some people might be resistant to you in the beginning but once you're able to prove to them that you deserve to have a serious conversation with them, you will get it.

As with the other student entrepreneurs that I interview, I am ALWAYS fascinated by how you are able to manage your time to perform your different responsibilities. So let me ask you: How do you manage your time in order to work on all of them? Can you give us any tips/advice on time management skills especially for the student readers who are aspiring and struggling to do the same?

Ah, time management is very difficult as a student by itself and an entrepreneur by itself so the two put together create a very chaotic and busy life.

To navigate through that, I use several tools to keep me on top of my work. I use Trello to keep my projects and responsibilities separate but recorded in a detailed manner so I don't miss anything. I love to-do-lists and a live by them. I also love google calendar and put everything on that so that also helps. I also try to schedule out a my days 1-2 weeks in advance so I can make progress on all of the things I am working on.

Prioritizing is very important and sometimes I have to prioritize school over work and other times work over school. You have to know when to do which.

The word "no" also helps lol. It sucks but you have to say no to things that you love and want for things that you've worked really hard for.

I will say I don't get much time to myself and often am not able to make a lot of time with friends, but I definitely do try to make sure I'm not lacking in any aspect of my life. But again, my priorities mainly lie within school and work.

What are your plans upon graduation? Do you see yourself working on your current companies full time? Do you see yourself being more involved within the modeling/acting space?

After graduation, I expect life to get crazier and I AM SO EXCITED! I definitely want to go to medical school to become a neuropsychiatrist. I also wanted to keep my media company going, however, I do think, if I am able to get it to the point that I want it to get at, I might step down as CEO and stay on the Board to ensure that the company stays committed to its values and to stay in touch with it throughout.

I definitely see myself getting more involved with modeling and acting. More of the latter though. I started taking acting classes and want to start auditioning soon. Hopefully, I can do a lot more in the future. In the meanwhile, I am taking whatever projects come my way to build experience and to get used to being in front of the camera.

Any advice for our aspiring entrepreneurs?

Life as an entrepreneur is tough. Actually, life as anything is very tough and full of failure. It's important to realize that no matter how many times you fail at however many aspects of life, you are the one who gets to decide whether or not YOU are a failure.

Also, take a leap of faith with your dreams. The best time will never come to you. You make that decision and stick with it. Part of succeeding is staying committed and dedicated so don't ever lose that.

If you want your startup to be interviewed, please reach out to me at contact@taehongmin.com Thanks!.